I realized today that I'm developing a bit of a kneejerk reaction to the phrase 'personal responsibility', and I think I want to unpack it a little and see what comes out. ( Cut for rantage. )
I'm personally having a really hard time figuring out what's my personal responsibility, what's my fault, what I can fix... these are not necessarily overlapping...
I think that "personal responsibility" is often used for "not my responsibility", which is (in this context means) "I don't want to be bothered!"
And I think that twisting of language is what causes the confusion. If people were actually talking about *personal responsibility*, it would make more sense, but since they're using it as code for something else, it doesn't.
Well, yes. Which is part of what pisses me off, in much the same way that using 'family values' as code to make blatant bigotry and hatred less obvious pisses me off.
OTOH... this is a blade that can cut both ways. I just defriended somebody on Facebook* for hitting one of my deal-breaker triggers. She's local, and I expect some fallout the next time we're in the same space, of the "This is a free country, you can't tell me what not to say!" variety. And if that happens, she's going to get a response to the effect of, "Yeah, and whatever happened to taking personal responsibility for your own behavior? Actions have consequences, and this time the consequence is that you've lost a friend. Deal with it."
* And IRL, although we don't actually see each other much. But she'll never be welcome in my home again.
Ah, but you see, people who use 'personal responsibility' in the context I mention above would probably then tell you that if you were offended by something, it's YOUR responsibility for being offended, not theirs for saying or doing something offensive. I'd guess you'll never convince them that you're doing anything other than punishing them unfairly for something that was, after all, your own fault.
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I'm personally having a really hard time figuring out what's my personal responsibility, what's my fault, what I can fix... these are not necessarily overlapping...
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And I think that twisting of language is what causes the confusion. If people were actually talking about *personal responsibility*, it would make more sense, but since they're using it as code for something else, it doesn't.
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OTOH... this is a blade that can cut both ways. I just defriended somebody on Facebook* for hitting one of my deal-breaker triggers. She's local, and I expect some fallout the next time we're in the same space, of the "This is a free country, you can't tell me what not to say!" variety. And if that happens, she's going to get a response to the effect of, "Yeah, and whatever happened to taking personal responsibility for your own behavior? Actions have consequences, and this time the consequence is that you've lost a friend. Deal with it."
* And IRL, although we don't actually see each other much. But she'll never be welcome in my home again.
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Which... yeah, I don't get.
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